I think that this is a great public forum topic: it relates to a current event that will educate students on some of the nuanc
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Lesson 4.2 Day 3
| 13NFL1-Compulsory Voting Page 110 of 163 www.victorybriefs.com ONE MUST ADVOCATE COMPULSORY PARTICIPATION, NOT SIMPLY COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE, TO ACCESS DEMOCRACY ADVANTAGES Ben Saunders Temporary Lecturer in Philosophy, Increasing Turnout A Compelling Case Politics : 2010 Vol. 30(1), 70 –77 Anyway, it is disingenuous of supporters of compulsory turnout to rely on the contingent practice of secret ballots to protect freedom of conscience (e.g. Birch, 2009, p. 22 fn.1). While it is true that voting is private inmost national democracies, it is not impossible for it to be public – as in the show of hands at a town meeting – and some, such as J.S. Mill, have advocated such practices (see Lever, 2007). I suspect that those who currently favour compulsory turnout, under conditions of the secret ballot, would be divided if asked to choose between compelling actual voting and mere attendance at the polls. The Australian Electoral Commission certainly holds that it is in principle the citizen’s legal duty to cast a valid vote, albeit that this cannot be strictly enforced because of the secret ballot, and this has been confirmed in a number of court decisions Evans, 2006, p. 4). Therefore, were the secret ballot repealed (without changing existing compulsion laws, it would be willing to enforce what even many advocates of compulsory turnout acknowledge to be a violation of individual freedom of conscience. Many who defend compulsion in the literature refuse to say explicitly whether they share the Australian Electoral Commission’s view that, ideally, voting ought to be compulsory, but enforcing turnout is the best we can do given the secret ballot (in which case perhaps we should question that institution, or hold that only turnout ought to be mandatory, even if we were able to enforce voting. As has been noted, the former seems to countenance possible violations of individual freedom of conscience yet the latter position is puzzling, because it is unclear why we ought to force someone to attend the polls only to abstain. Mere turnout does nothing for the democratic values lauded by advocates of compulsion. |